very little land here that's owned outright.
Less than 10 percent. Most people lease their
holdings from the state, whose lands make up
the biggest public estate in the world.
"Here's how it works. The government de
cides how much land a man needs to make a
living. A stockman might get a thousand
square miles. A wheat farmer might get a
thousand acres. A sugar grower, maybe one
hundred acres. Leases last for 30 years, and
they don't cost much.
"When the leases are up, the state can
cut up the leasehold properties into smaller
parcels, if ways have been found to make the
land support more people. We've got a big,
empty country here, and we have to fill it up.
You know, 'populate or perish.' "
Sharks Haunt the Barrier Reef
It was time to leave the prosperous, popu
lous southeast for the tropical north. I flew
to Gladstone, 270 miles away, and boarded
the rugged little motor vessel Warana, Sid
Sayers, captain, for the Great Barrier Reef.
Already aboard were Ben Cropp, one of
Australia's best underwater photographers,
Serpentine coils of the Brisbane River wind through Queensland's capital, stretching
toward the horizon in an infinity of small suburban houses-pride of more than 668,000
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